Today I got to the barn not sure if Fire's trainer had found a way to
squeeze a session in with him before she heads off to a four-day clinic in
Maine. She begged off last weekend and got stuck in a meeting on Monday
so
my initial plans of having her work him at least once a week and help me
work him once a week seem to once again be falling through. Today she
called
to pick up her lesson check and let me know she's be back Monday but she's
not sure if she'll be up for a visit with Fire or not. I rode him today
anyway and tried hard to keep in mind what my sister worked with me on
yesterday: fighting the desire to be really stiff and tense on my left
side.
We had some great moments and some not so great moments but Fire tried his
best to be a good boy and only take a little advantage of the situation
<bg>.
I actually started by taking Meeko out in a rope halter and to see how she
was feeling. The gnats were so bad I wouldn't have been surprised if they
banded together to carry her off. They made functioning almost impossible
at times for humans and horses alike. Meeko's definitely back on the road
to
being her old self and my sister made V get the bareback pad and put some
light riding work in since she's spent so much time vaulting that her
actual
riding has slid a bit. It was a good exercise for V as she only had the
rope
halter and lead and had to rely mostly on her legs to keep the pony in
line.
I put the fly mask on her to make working more comfortable for her and the
little stinker managed to finagle her way out of during the course of the
ride. It ended with a pair of ears hanging on the rope down under her jaw.
Hopefully, whomever takes her on doesn't have an attachment to horses
wearing halters or flymasks in turnout because it's a huge no no with her.
When the boarder who owns a young event horse came into the ring my sister
called it quits with Meeko to give her plenty of room to jump and had V do
work on the vaulting barrel. That horse is what the clinician Greg likes
to
call a "pot stirrer" because he brings a high level of tension with him
into
the ring that has the potential to set off other horses. I could hear the
tension in his breathing with every stride (the telltale loud, lip
vibrating
exhale) and I could see he was all curled up. I opted to keep Fire at the
walk to avoid not being able to stay out of her way as she jumped and to
keep him relaxed in the face of a jacked up horsie (to be honest I felt
the
tension more than my boy did). He was more annoyed than
anything...something
about being a big boy in the ring makes him think he's Mr. Know It All
about
proper ring etiquette and who he does and does not want to share the ring
with. The BO's Arab who gets to spend the night next to his Arab mare
girlfriend? The ring isn't big enough for the two of them. Meeko? He'll
tolerate her and even give her a quick nip on the lips to let her know
this
is his ring but he'll be nice since she'll kick his butt in turnout if he
tries anything. New little Mare? We have to remind him that staring isn't
polite and she's old enough to be his Mom. Her owner asked us if we would
him to be her turnout buddy which is fine because he's spent most of his
time around mares and she needs a friend who will be a calming influence.
Melanie
Princess Pony
Blonde Ambition
